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Friday, November 6, 2015

Blog Hops 101: A FAQ

Blog Hops 101

Some of us have been doing blog hops for years but there are new bloggers joining in all the time and it can be confusing and intimidating. So I thought I'd do a bit of a FAQ page that covers some basics to blog hop giveaways and answers some of the questions I get on a regular basis. And, heck, even for those who have done hops before a refresher is good too, right?

Please check it out! If you have other questions about blog hops please let me know!

Q: What exactly IS a giveaway hop?

Basically multiple bloggers and authors are joining together for an event to help increase everyone's number of followers. Each blog posts about the event and then followers "hop" around to the various blogs to enter giveaways and follow them.

Q: How do I find out about future hops?

All hop sign ups will be posted to this blog. You can keep an eye out on it or you can sign up for event notifications. When a sign up opens I'll then email everyone on the list letting them know :) You can find that HERE.

Q:Who can join?

Any blogger or author can join our events. You just need to have a blog or a website where you can create a post specifically for the event.

Newbie bloggers are welcome!

ALL genres and heat levels are welcome as well! If the theme is one that applies to you...you're welcome to join in! We don't discriminate based on blog genre or heat level.

Q: When will I get the hop info?

All hop info--button, blurb, linky, etc--can be found in the sign up post. There's a section to grab the info. Codes and such will be in the first link. I'll send a reminder email a couple days before the hop starts though. Please make sure my email is on your approved email list. Sometimes it can end up in spam so keep an eye out! (acade29@gmail.com)

Q:When do I post? Do I need to post every day?

Each hop will tell you the starting date. This is the day that everyone participating in the hop should post to their blogs. Posts should be live by 8am US Eastern time at the very latest. This is very important. If hoppers keep hitting blogs that don't have posts up...they're going to bail on the hop and that hurts everyone participating.

You only need to post on the first date of the blog hop unless otherwise stated.

Q: What should I give away?

Your giveaway should be either book or theme related. So if the hop is Halloween themed your giveaway could be anything from gift cards to books to cute pumpkin figurines or candy.

Your giveaway can be anything though! And it doesn't have to be a huge item. You can give away a 99cent ebook, print books, audio books, giftcards, swag, etc.

Q: Can I use an ongoing giveaway as my hop giveaway?

No. The hop giveaway must be specific to the event. It needs to begin on the first day of the hop and close on the last day of the hop. Ex--You cannot use a giveaway on Goodreads and just link to it in your blog post.

Q: What types of posts work best?

Short and sweet! While it's tempting to do long posts, include excerpts, reviews, etc quick posts that catch the eye work best. Keep in mind that the hoppers are visiting dozen of blogs in a very short amount of time. You may have them for a minute or less during the hop. Give them a quick taste, make following easy for them and hopefully you'll see them again later on via social media where they can learn more about you.

Give them a tease...not a hard sales pitch.

Q: The linky code isn't working for me! Help!

This can happen sometimes! I try to send code over for Blogger, WP, and WP self hosted. Sometimes the code goes wonky or you have another platform. If that happens...email me right away or message me on FB and we'll figure out how to get it working for you :D

Q: I'm not getting many entries. Any suggestions?

Make it EASY for hoppers to follow you and enter! Like I mentioned above...they're moving very fast trying to visit dozens of blogs in a matter of days. Make it easy on them.

Make it CLEAR what they need to do so they see the giveaway right away. Bold it. Highlight the text. Underline it, etc. Make it stand out so when they're scanning the page it catches their eye right away.

Using a Rafflecopter/GiveawayTools/etc widget is a great idea. Hoppers know to look for those. They're easy and free.

When you start making it harder ie: Go to X page and tell me one fact you learned, go to X FB page and tell them hello or things of that nature...people might not bother putting in that extra amount of time to enter

Q: I can no longer participate in a hop! What should I do?

It's okay! Email me and I'll remove your listing :D

Q: Something else has gone wrong or I have a question not listed.

That's okay too! I'm always around and happy to answer questions or help you figure out what's going wonky. You can email me (acade29@gmail.com) or message me on Facebook at either the blog's FB page or my personal one. Just be sure to tell me which hop you're having trouble with :) I try to get back with yall as quick as possible. If it's been a few days feel free to give me a nudge-push. lol